Hit A Snag In Planning :(

mel66

I've totally hit a snag in my planning right now. And it's very discouraging and frustrating! I've had a vision and it's totally been knocked down right now.

I'm very much interested in having the reception at Marquis Gardens in Ancaster. We've talked them down in price slightly. They need 135 minimum guests for the ballroom. So I had increased my guest list slightly so that I don't end up paying for plates of food with no one to feed.
Around the same time I contacted the Royal Botanical Gardens for the ceremony. At that time I heard it was 120 guests. But not until I got the contract in the mail to sign. Now they can only fit maximum of 125 guests at the Royal Court.

HELP! What do I do now!? My RBG ceremony is falling apart. It's upsetting cuz I can't think of anywhere else that is that perfect? I really wanted to get my photos done at the RBG as well.

What are peoples thoughts on not inviting everyone to the ceremony? I find sometimes there is much less of a turn out for the ceremony and most people just come the the reception. Is there a way around this so I can still do things the way I visioned? PLEASE HELP! :S

ring_pop

Exactly how many guests are you planning to invite and how many do you think will show up? If it's a matter of say, inviting 125 to the ceremony and 135 to the reception, that's a pretty big no-no. I think that the only time that you can reasonably invite guests to the reception only is if you're having a VERY small ceremony (like, immediate family only) and a much larger reception. If you're only excluding a few guests, it would be pretty offensive.

Can you negotiate with your reception venue to pay a minimum AMOUNT rather than have a minimum NUMBER of guests? That's probably what they care about anyway. Perhaps you could raise the per-head cost so that the total ends up being the same as what you would have paid anyway, and then just get a little more thrown into your menu.

I actually don't think that a difference of 10 guests is THAT big of a deal. We had a handful of guests come to the reception only. I suppose you can't count on that, but it doesn't seem like the end of the world to me. Does RBG have an outdoor space you could use instead that would be more flexible? Is 125 an absolute hard cap for fire code, or is there ANY possibility they could squeeze in a couple more?

mel66

I guess I did over react a bit much when I posted yesterday. I talked to my mom and she made me feel better. Thank goodness for mom's eh?

I emailed the RBG back and she talked to the manager and they are able to squeeze a few more people in (some will have to stand though), so things will work out now.

I'm so excited!! Meeting with Marquis to make all the finalized plans and pay the deposit next week!!!! YAH
And just have to make sure the extra numbers are ok with the RBG and then that will get booked as well!
I'm feeling much better about all this...things are falling into place!

raynes

If you need to have the ceremony "standing room only" just make sure you keep it to a reasonable length!

The Royal Court if beautiful.  We'd considered it when we were looking! (Ended up with the Rose Garden Tent and the new Atrium)